Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed - in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
   For our earthly bodies, the ones we have now that can die, must be transformed into heavenly bodies that cannot perish but will live forever.
   [Jesus said:] "Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night.
   "But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect Him."
   [Paul wrote:] Now let me remind you, brothers, of what the Gospel really is, for it has not changed - it is the same Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then and still do now, for your faith is squarely built upon this wonderful message; and it is this Good News that saves you if you still firmly believe it, unless of course you never really believed it in the first place. I passed on to you right from the first what had been told to me, that Christ died for our sins just as the Scriptures said He would, and that He was buried, and that three days afterwards He arose from the grave just as the prophets foretold. He was seen by Peter and later by the rest of "the Twelve." After that He was seen by more than five hundred Christian brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died by now. Then James saw Him and later all the apostles.
   [The Scriptures are true. When we are changed,] "Death is swallowed up in victory." O death, where then your victory? Where then your sting?

Taken from I Cor. 15, Lk. 12, The New King James, The New International
Version and The Living Bible. For free Lifescope book, write to Box 1575,Carlsbad, NM 88221. Please send $1.00 for postage and handling.